


Sleeping

by mansikka



Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-04
Updated: 2018-11-04
Packaged: 2019-08-17 16:49:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16520249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mansikka/pseuds/mansikka
Summary: Venom can't sleep... Eddie tries to help.





	Sleeping

Eddie wakes feeling emptiness in him, groaning as he stretches out against the bed. He keeps his eyes shut hoping Venom will notice, come slinking back into the bedroom and to him, so he can doze off again. When he doesn't, Eddie lifts his head, cracking his eyes open to catch a light coming from beyond the bedroom door. The TV is on, and whatever Venom is watching is at such a low volume he'd have to strain his ear to catch a word.

Eddie goes to call out; sometimes Venom gets restless beneath his skin when he is sleeping and he cannot. Venom needs his rest as much as he does but in much smaller amounts, going into a kind of stasis when Eddie is working, typically curling and stretching in his lap. But at night, at least a decent sleep one for Eddie, once Venom has studied his thoughts and taken his fill he sometimes slips from him after silently tucking in the comforter around him, creeping out to their living room and seeping on to the couch.

Eddie's voice is parched when he goes to speak; he reaches for the glass of water on his nightstand that Venom would have left there for him in his insistence of keeping them hydrated. Eddie drags himself up to sit and slumps forward, groaning for what is probably the early hour of the morning. Stumbling through to join Venom on the couch.

"Can't sleep?"

 _Thinking_.

The single word is enough to wake Eddie, who reaches out to caress the black ooze on the cushion beside him encouraging Venom into his lap. "You okay?"

Venom doesn't answer. He gets like this sometimes when the distance from his home seems overwhelming, or he struggles with thoughts that he thinks are _bad_. For all their intimacy and shared experience, Eddie knows in moments like this the only way to reach him is not through words, but only with touch.

When Venom has poured himself fully into Eddie's lap he reaches out and strokes featherlight fingers over the silky blackness of him. Knowing exactly the pressure to use, and what is soothing. Using their connection to do more than words ever can.

Venom molds against him, the tension Eddie feels beneath his fingertips beginning to soften several minutes in. He knows he's helping when Venom shifts and morphs in his lap, tendrils stroking up the backs of his hands and creeping up his arms. When those tendrils reach up to curl over his shoulders and Venom has plastered himself against his chest, Eddie wraps his arms around him in a loose hug.

It's a shared breath between them, same heart, same mind. It's only right then that the presence of one settles the other. Eddie likes that he can do this for him, and that he is the only one that can. He closes his eyes as Venom nuzzles against him, smiling when he comes to a stop in the crook of his neck.

"You need anything, V?" he asks gently, not wanting to disturb the mood. He feels Venom nod against him, and waits patiently for his response.

 _This_.

"This?"

_This. Us._

Venom wraps around Eddie tighter, and Eddie takes his cue to lift him up. He cradles Venom to him as he stretches out along the couch then settles him back on his chest and smiles as Venom shifts, flicking out like a blanket to cover him.

It is only then that Venom shares his thoughts with him, flashes of images and color flaring through his mind. He is thinking about _them_ , their connection. Eddie smiles for the affection that seeps through him for it, sending the same contented thoughts back. Venom worries sometimes that one day his kin will follow him here bent on the same destructive path he'd once been on until he'd joined with Eddie. It's a valid fear, one that he can't do anything to alleviate. Likely just as much as it is unlikely, with the hope that Venom's lack of contact back will be enough to deter.

There are so many things in Venom's history that make Eddie's own existence seem so simple. Venom shares these memories freely, not holding a single thing back. Mourning a loss of family. Loneliness from a life lived feeling isolated for being _different_. Fearing of a host that used him only to do bad. Eddie holds him close through all of them. Struck by the idea that for all his work with words, the ones that matter when somebody needs to talk are the ones he struggles with most. He'll forever be thankful that between he and Venom, in situations like this one, there is often no need to talk at all.

He sends back thoughts of companionship, solidarity, how he never plans to be apart from Venom again. The furthest they ever make it apart anyway is the short distance between bed and couch, which on some nights still proves too much. Eddie isn't leaving him, no matter if the entirety of Klyntar descend down on them demanding Venom perform the duties he was born to do.

Eddie shows him images of all the good they do together, all the things that prove Venom is a part of _this_ world. Sometimes this is all he needs; Venom knows he belongs here with Eddie, but there are moments when he needs a little more. So Eddie shows it all to him; every face of the people they save, every time Mrs. Chen looks at them with both pride and relief. Of the easy way Anne and Dan have accepted their symbiosis, even if their well-meaning attempts at speaking to them separately have confused Venom on more than one occasion.

"You doing okay?" Eddie whispers when he feels the last of the tension drain from him, smiling as tendrils slot between his fingers to hold his hand.

 _Yes_.

"Are you… missing your home, or something?"

 _Here is home_.

Eddie smiles at the nudge against his chest, shifting a little as Venom grows and forms above him. He is bracketed here between the approximation of elbows, smiling up at a face that would leave most terrified. Eddie wriggles to get more comfortable, peaceful as he stares up at him, hands slotting through the black slickness at his sides.

"Yeah. My home's with you too, V," he agrees, feeling Venom's smile seep through him, washing in waves of contentment that, if he lets them, will lull Eddie right to sleep.

 _Thinking is dangerous_.

"Yeah," Eddie says, laughing for Venom repeating his own words, "it is at times."

_Sometimes can't stop. Sometimes think anyway._

"That why you couldn't sleep?"

 _Most_.

"Well," Eddie says, sweeping a hand down Venom's back, "I get that. You _know_ that. But like you do with me; I'm here if you need me. You only have to think it, okay?"

 _Yes_.

Venom's pleasure at his words once again washes through him, leaving Eddie smiling up at the ceiling when he drops his head against his throat. Though then he's laughing, squirming away in protest as Venom pretends to snore. Pressing it into his skin so he can feel the reverberations.

"I was _not_ snoring."

 _Were_.

"I doubt it."

 _Loud, Eddie. Very loud. Like engine_.

"Hey," Eddie protests, nudging for Venom to look up, "I'm not _that_ bad. And if I was, you could probably stop it. Right?"

 _Don't want to stop. Like it. Like it most nights_.

"Are you telling me I snore all the time?"

_Many nights._

"Well, then I'm so sorry to disturb you," Eddie retorts, this time feeling laughter ripple beneath his skin.

 _Forgive Eddie_.

"Well _that's_ good of you."

_Eddie…_

Somehow, the way Venom hisses out his name is filled with affection that Eddie can't help grinning for. "Then, I'm sorry I kept you awake."

Venom's smile is huge, one that anyone else would fear being the last image they see before losing their heads. Eddie reaches up, nudging against his chin.

"You think you're ready to come back to bed?"

 _Yes_.

Eddie sinks into Venom as he wraps around him, letting himself be carried back to bed. Dropping back into Venom's warmth as he stretches beneath him against the sheets. Falling asleep within minutes to the soothing images flashing through his head.


End file.
